ism, when out of respect for the
day of universal redemption, they were directed by their pastors to
await the "morrow's sun."

"Thus," mentally exclaimed Macallan, "has religion degenerated into
superstition; and that which, from the purity of its origin, would have
commanded our respect, is now only deserving of our contempt. It is by
the motives that have produced them, that our actions must be weighed.
That which once was an offering of religious veneration and love, is now
a tribute to superstition and to fear. Well, Seymour," said he,
addressing his companion, "how do you like surveying?"

"Not much; the sun is hot, and the glare so powerful that I am almost
blind. What a pity it is that we had not some trees here, to shade us
from the heat! I should like to plant some for the benefit of those who
may come after us."

"A correct feeling on your part, my boy; but no trees would grow here at
present--there is no soil."

"There is plenty of some sort or other in the part where we have been
surveying."

"Yes, the sand thrown up by the sea, and the particles of shells and
rock, which have been triturated by the wave, or decomposed by the
alternate action of the elements; but there is no vegetable matter,
without which there can be no vegetable produce. Observe, Willy,--the
skeleton of this earth is framed of rocks and mountains, which have been
proudly rearing their heads into the clouds, or lying in dark majesty
beneath the seas, since the creation of the world, when they were fixed
by the Almighty architect, to remain till time shall be no more. Over
them, we find the wrecks of a former world--once as beautiful, as
thickly peopled, but more thoughtless and more wicked than the present,
which was hurled into one general chaos, and its component, but
incongruous parts, amalgamated in awful mockery by the deluge--that
tremendous evidence of the wrath of Heaven. But it has long passed
away; and o'er the relics of former creation, o'er the kneaded mass of
man in his pride, of woman in her beauty, of arts in their splendour, of
vice in her zenith, and of virtue in her tomb, we are standing upon
another, teeming with life, and yielding forth her fruits in the season
as before. But, Willy, the supports of life are not to be found in
primeval rocks or antediluvial remains. It is from the superficial
covering, the thin crust with which the earth is covered, composed of
the remains of former existence, of the bre